Trip Truck

big world - short life

Throttle Return Springs

Throttle return springs seem to be another favourite fail with several owners reporting breakages. In our case not only did the spring fail, it totally disappeared too - which was slightly worrying given its proximity to the spinning fan and vulnerable radiator. The standard replacement item intuitively seems to be overly stressed which, utterly speculatively of course, may account for the consistent failures. I’ve added an extra steel spring clip to the ‘train’ which alleviates some stress but still gives a very powerful return action. Hopefully this will help with longevity.

Snapped Calorifier Brackets

After a couple of years of use, including some extended periods of very rough road type travel, one of the spring-steel calorifier mounting brackets snapped clean in two. We were on the road at the time so I made a temporary repair with zip ties and, at the same time, used zip ties to relieve any pressure on the same joint on the remaining good bracket. Though the zip ties worked just fine for the remainder of the trip, by the time we got home the 'remaining good' bracket had also snapped in exactly the same place as the first, across two spot welds that bear all the tension of the clamping bolts’ force.

I’m not sure if it will stand the test of time, but my current ‘solution’ has been to use three brackets instead of the standard two in order to spread the stresses, and to sandwich each mounting foot between two rubber washers to allow some of the harsh vibration to be absorbed more readily. Staff at Surejust were helpful, supplying the third ‘extra’ bracket free of charge. Apparently the issue is not unknown but is very rare. In fairness, most calorifiers - in their usual home pootling up and down the canal system - will never see anything like the abuse that their siblings in overland vehicles endure. For anyone who has a similar fixture, I reckon it’s worth using an extra bracket from the outset, or even a couple extra if your own calorifier is bigger than ours (15 litres). If my current fix fails again, I have a cunning plan involving some push-bike inner-gear cable…

Wheel Wobble Is yet another consistent bugbear. Different owners report slightly different symptoms but suffice to say that when driving at what would be a good cruising speed on trunk roads, the T244 is known to wobble its front wheels. In our case the wobble does not happen all of the time, poor road surface, especially furrowed surfaces where large lorries have ‘ploughed’ the tarmac, seem to exacerbate the issue. It’s an odd one to predict. Sometimes the truck will cruise as smoothly as anything, other times a wobble starts at about 48mph but diminishes again as about 54mph is reached. In an effort to eliminate possibilities I tried a Dynabead application and after the very helpful staff at Dynabeads UK had done some calculations ended up adding 18 ounces of beads to the inner tubes of each of the front wheels. Eliminating balancing issues has helped, albeit not massively. The ‘wobble-range’ now tends to start slightly later and end slightly sooner; when it happens at all.

This inconsistency is, to my mind, revealing. My own view is that the old standard tyres don’t help. Many of these trucks have been parked in reserve for years on end, which is not good for tyre sidewall integrity. I have a feeling that the standard tyres end up slightly deformed as a result of bearing weight through one point for extended periods and that when both front wheels hit a particular point in their rotation in relation to their partner then their harmonic imbalance leads to the phenomenon. The only way to establish if this is an explanation is to replace the standard tyres, and possibly the wheels too.

Wobbly Wheels

Cart Springs and Gearing

Making a very long story very short: the standard suspension - certainly at our 7.5 tonne weight limit - is too harsh, and the overall gearing is too low. This should come as no surprise; and didn't. The truck is designed to be driven unsympathetically in dire situations over rough ground at a gross weight of over 10 tonnes.

As far as the suspension goes, I have pondered a few different fixes including: 1) removing the rear helper springs, 2) trying to have the existing parabolic springs re-tempered, 3) trying to get new springs made, 4) a conversion to air suspension, 5) changing tyres.

For a little while I pursued the possibility of a conversion to air suspension route but was dissuaded by a UK expert as most standard air suspension systems wisely incorporate an anti-roll function which would actually work against the truck in off-road situations by adding massively to torsional stress in cross-axle situations. At a price, a bespoke system could be created, but with our budget this was a non-starter. Tweaking the standard springs is appealing but given the associated issue of too-low overall gearing, and in an effort to kill two birds with one stone (or at least really irritate them), my first move is definitely going to be to try a slightly taller and wider tyre.

Regarding the gearing specifically, likewise I have pondered a few possible solutions, the most viable of which as a change of main gearbox. This has already been done to great effect by one LD T244 owner but is not a straightforward task, it requires quite a bit of patience and some fabrication. It's not that the standard gearing is a disaster but it does mean that at the maximum design speed of 89kph it is undoubtedly the case that the engine is beyond its happy rev range. Conversely, in off-road and bonkers-gradient situations, we have not yet actually needed anything lower than 3rd gear in the low-ration box. Again our all-up weight of 7.5 tonnes is probably quite influential with this issue.

And so, for now, I have a notion that an increased rolling tyre radius and an altogether larger air pocket will pay dividends in bringing a slight and very desirable increase in overall gearing, and when run at lower pressures, some much-needed suspension compliance over rough surfaces. Watch this space...